In an issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences, a study was published that confirms what we’ve all suspected: Internet trolls are terrible people.
Let’s start by setting our definitions straight. They are both similar, but they have their differences.
An online troll is someone who enters a discussion and posts comments intended to disturb or disrupt the conversation.
Often, in fact, there seems to be no real purpose behind their comments other than to annoy all the other participants. Trolls will lie, exaggerate, and insult to get a response. They will say and do almost anything to make you as angry as they are. A response is what they are both looking for.
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What kind of person would do this and is there a way on how to stop online trolls? Some Canadian researchers decided to find out.
They conducted two online studies with over 1,200 people, administering personality tests to each subject as well as a survey about their online commenting behavior. They were looking for evidence linking trolling to the “dark quadrant” of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.
They found that Dark Tetrad scores were highest among people who said trolling was their favorite online activity. To get an idea of how common these traits are among online trolls, see this figure of the paper.
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Look how low Dark Tetrad scores are for everyone except the trolls! Their scores rise for all four traits on the chart. The relationship between trolling and Dark Tetrad is so significant that the authors write in their paper: “… the associations between sadism and the results of the Global Internet Trolling Assessment) were so strong that it can be said that Internet trolls are prototypical everyday sadists.”
Trolls really enjoy making you feel bad. To quote the authors again (because this article is really quotable), “Both trolls and sadists take sadistic pleasure at the misfortune of others. Sadists just want to have fun…and the Internet is their playground!”
So, if you want to know how to stop online trolls, which may seem pointless, but sometimes you have to do the hard work for your mental health, the next time you encounter an online troll, remember:
